The objectives of this research were to characterise the clay minerals composition of soil-derived dust in Northern China and to set up a mineralogical signature to trace their origin. Mineral composition of aerosol particles was investigated at Aksu, Dunhuang, Yulin, Tongliao and Changwu during an intensive field campaign period of ACE-Asia. The results show that the kaolinite (K) to chlorite (C) ratio is sensitive to the regional origin of Asian dust. Western source areas (represented by Aksu) displayed the lowest K/C ratio of 0.3 (average), while it was found to increase up to 0.70 (average) upon moving towards northern source areas (represented by Yulin). By studying transported dust in a deposition area representative of the Chinese Loess Plateau, the usefulness of the K/C ratio, when associated with back air-mass trajectories, was found to lie in revealing the origin of the dust. Comparison of the mineralogical data between Asian dust and Sahara dust, shows that the K/C ratio is also an effective signature to identify the source areas on a hemisphere scale.
